2026-06-06 · percent of tropical rainforest area
The Amazon is half of Earth's rainforest
Tropical moist forest stores carbon and water. The Amazon basin is the largest single block.
Half of Earth's tropical rainforest stands in a single basin. The Amazon holds 49% of global tropical rainforest area — nearly as much as the Congo basin (18%) and Southeast Asia with all other regions (33%) combined. When that much carbon and water sits in one place, one region's forest loss moves the whole world's number.
1 cell = 0.1 percent of tropical rainforest area (0.1% of tropical rainforest) · 1,000 cells
Context
The regional shares come from FAO's Global Forest Resources Assessment — the only worldwide forest assessment based on official national data, with correspondents in 194 countries and areas — together with RAISG regional estimates for the Amazon; all figures are rounded.
FRA 2025, released in October 2025, is the mechanism for reporting two UN Sustainable Development Goal forest indicators — forest area as a share of land (15.1.1) and progress toward sustainable forest management (15.2.1) — so basin-level shares like these feed directly into global goal tracking.
Measurement is still catching up with the stakes: in 2026 FAO reported supporting Amazon countries in building a shared approach to monitoring forest degradation, while also leading an international effort to define 'forest degradation' itself.
FAO / RAISG regional rainforest shares, rounded.
Share and export
Credit this grid as Inagrid — https://inagrid.com/e/2026-06-06-amazon-forest-share